Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

The Spiritual Art of Counting

I am still one of the people who read a variety of news
accounts every day. I even buy a hard
copy of my local newspaper, but I may be the last generation doing that. Neither of my kids ever buys a newspaper and
I seldom see a student reading a hard copy paper. I also read a fair amount of news
online. Obviously that is more
planet-friendly. And it gives me a wide
variety of sources to consult. Clearly,
that is a huge upside of our electronic age.
In the early days of my life, I would never had read the London Times or
an English version of a Chinese paper.
Now it is very easy.

I was surprised when I went online yesterday to see a story
with an arresting title: 4 Teachings From Jesus That Everybody Gets Wrong. It should not be surprising that I
immediately clicked that site. I was
interested that the opinion was by a well-known New Testament scholar, Amy-Jill
Levine. She and I are not friends, but I
do know about her. She teaches at Vanderbilt
University, where she is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish
Studies. She is a very reputable
scholar, but in religion no one would enjoy universal accolades. I am sure there are Christian fundamentalists
who would not appreciate her at all.

I was intrigued that she was offering a look at four
different parables of Jesus. For most
Christians these parables are fairly well known. And there probably is general consensus on
what these parables mean today. And that
is the issue Levine takes on in order to give contemporary meaning her own
twist. She does not dispute that most
contemporary Christians would interpret the parables in a similar way. What she does suggest, however, is that our
contemporary interpretation may well not be what the first century audience of
Jesus would have thought.

Let’s look at one of the parables, namely, the Parable of
the Prodigal Son. I am enough of a New
Testament person to know that parable only appears in Luke’s Gospel. The story is about a father and his two
sons. The elder son is the
quintessential hard-working boy who deserves his father’s respect, etc. The younger son asks for his part of the
heritage and, then, proceeds to leave home and blow the whole wad of
money. At some point, the younger guy
comes home. The father welcomes him back
by throwing a party.

In contemporary interpretations most people think the father
in the parable portrays God and that the story is about repentance, grace,
forgiveness and paternal love. This is
the point at which Levine begins her work.
She says that it is the Gospel writer, Luke, who shapes the reading of
the story in this way. She thinks the
original Jewish audience would have “heard” the parable in a different
way. I was intrigued.

Levine reminds us who know Luke 15, that the parable of the
Prodigal Son is prefaced by two other smaller parables: the lost sheep and lost
coin. Clearly these two are about the
“lost.” Levine says it simply: “the man
loses the sheep; the woman loses her coin. But God does not ‘lose us.’” She adds, “The first two parables are not
about repenting and forgiving. They are about counting: The shepherd noticed
one sheep missing out of 100, and the woman noticed one coin missing from
10.”

I like how Levine finishes her comments about the first two
parables before turning to the Prodigal Son.
“And they searched, found, rejoiced, and celebrated. In doing so, they
set up the third parable.” Then Levine
adds an important point that comes from the fact that she is Jewish and, hence,
looks at things with a different eye than I do.
She says, in effect, the parable is about counting---just as the lost
coin and lost sheep parables were about counting. She drives home the point when she notes, “if
we see the father as surprising when he welcomes junior home, we mishear again.
Dad is simply delighted that junior has returned: He rejoices and throws a
party. If we stop here, we’ve failed to count.”

I find this “original” interpretation fascinating. It points to an inclusive God. I like the God who is always on the lookout
for the missing ones. God is one who
counts and can be counted on. Even if we
stray or become lost, we can count on God to notice. The story is never over, even if we are
lost. God counts and will include. I find that to be good news.

If God is this way, those of us who call ourselves followers
need to be the same way. We want to be
driven by the same compassion as the Holy One. We also need to learn the
spiritual art of counting. It is as
Levine says: “Our parable is less about forgiving and more about counting, and
making sure everyone counts. Whom have we lost? If we don’t count, it may be
too late.”

I like the sentiment that everyone counts. That includes me. And the same is demanded of me: to make sure
everyone else is counted.

Popular posts from this blog

Recently I had the opportunity to speak to a gathering of folks. The invitation was to talk about how people get into spiritual living. While that was an interesting topic to address, I soon realized how diverse and complex the answer really is. I doubt there is a recipe or game plan that you can offer folks and everyone immediately proceeds to get into spiritual living. I am sure people do it in different ways. Perhaps it is that the same person does it differently over a period of years.

I will offer three ways people get into spiritual living. Over a period of time, I am confident people do all three. I certainly have practiced all three. I would like to talk about entrances, thresholds and openings. These are not steps---to be taken one after the other. They are not stages. They are simply different ways we get into the spiritual.

The first option is by way of entrance. When I think about entrance, I first think about it in a literal fashion. Probably the most typic…

We live in it at all times. It surrounds us, penetrates us and yet
is probably separate from us. It is independent and dependent at the
same time. It is mysterious and, yet, completely transparent and
knowable. It’s reality.

Of course, there are different
philosophical and theological perspectives on just what reality is. I
am sure there must be scientific versions, as well. Psychologists might
tell is reality is a matter of perspective. I suppose some extremists
are confident there is no such thing as reality. Maybe I am in
illusion, but it seems to me pretty clear there is such a thing a
reality. The good news is, I do not intend to explore its philosophical
and scientific roots. I am going to take reality for granted. For me,
it is. Let’s think about the reality of reality.

What
prompted these beginning thoughts was a random sentence in an article I
was reading. The article was not very good, but it did have a great
sentence from one of my favorite author…

I am sure I learned very young that community was important. I just didn’t have the language for it. When I was a pre-school kid, I recall my dad going into the little town close to our farm. A number of guys (I don’t remember any women) gathered each morning in the local drugstore to have coffee and discuss the hot topics of the night before and day to come. I was thrilled to be included, but I don’t recall talking. But I was present.

I am sure no one called that gathering a “community.” But that is exactly what it was. It was not a religious community, although I am sure most of the guys went to church somewhere in the little town. It was not political, although politics surely were central to the discussion. It was a “community community,” if that makes any sense. Sports, local news, farm economy and local business news were the fabric of the community.

I have been part of communities most of my adult life. It is fair to say they are important to me. It seems I need the…